A brassiere, commonly referred to as a bra, is an article of clothing that covers, supports, and may elevate the breasts of a woman. Anatomically, the breasts are typically composed of fat tissue surrounding mammary glands, but may also include surgically-implanted augmentation or reconstruction material. The breasts also include overlying skin and some internal ligaments that help determine the breast shape, but many women prefer for their breasts to be additionally supported by a bra (typically worn as an undergarment) during daily and athletic activities.
Overnight, potentially unsightly wrinkles may develop in the décolletage or décolleté region of a woman's chest (e.g. at or above the sternum) due to sleep positioning of the breasts. For example, when a woman sleeps on her right or left side, one breast is gravitationally drawn to lie against the other, which may exacerbate such décolleté skin wrinkles after sleep, both for women who have undergone breast augmentation and also for those who have not. Many consumers of women's undergarments understand that décolleté skin wrinkles are generally considered to be undesirable.
For many years, certain specialized sleep bras containing inter-breast cushions or pads, and sleep accessories such as inter-breast pillows, have been proposed to separate the breasts during sleep and thereby inhibit the development of skin wrinkles in the décolletage region of a woman's chest. Therefore, the prior art has demonstrated a long-felt need in the industry for an invention to address this problem. However, the appearance during use of previous inter-breast pillows and specialized sleep bras for this purpose was often tolerable only to women who know that they would not be seen in their sleepwear (e.g. women who live alone). For example, hitherto proposed specialized sleep bras for the purpose of reducing décolleté skin wrinkles have had one or more unnatural or conspicuously outwardly protruding lumps, which limited their commercial success.
Hence, there remains a need in the art for a bra that can be comfortably worn while sleeping, that is structured to reduce the formation of wrinkles in the upper chest of a woman who sleeps on her side, and that has a natural appearance that is outwardly attractive to the wearer and to spouses, mates, friends, or roommates who may see the bra in use.